Iniscealtra National School

Mountshannon Co. Clare

News November 2011

Eucharistic Congress Bell
The bell associated with calling people to the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin next year, was brought to the school during October. Fr Jones and Fr Quinlan brought the bell to the school where the latter gave a talk to the children and invited everyone to ring the bell for themselves.

The Congress takes place in Croke Park in June 2012.

Halloween no-uniform day
The children held their annual no-uniform day on Friday October 28th to raise funds for Temple Street Childrens Hospital. There was a wide variety of costumes on display and the children looked very scary indeed. A total of €250 was raised and congratulations go to all concerned. Photos from the day can be seen in the photo gallery section of the school website

Gaelic football
The school completed the Gaelic football fixtures with a blitz which was held in Corofin last month. Our young team played three games, narrowly losing two and drawing the final game. The children enjoy the football at this time of year but are already looking forward to the hurling and camogie in the spring.

History project
Second, third and fourth class did a history project on artefacts.
The children learned about famous artefacts, for example The Tara Broach and the Ardagh Chalice. They then went in search of their own artefacts. They brought them into school and shared them with the class. Some of the artefacts included-
?An old rusty key to a front door, more than two hundred years old.
?An Esso oil bottle that was ninety five years old.
?A Christmas stamp from 1977.
?An old oil lamp.
?An old €1 and some old Irish coins.
?An old metal iron used for ironing clothes long ago.
?An old glass milk bottle.
To view some of our artefacts log onto www.mountshannonschool.net

Team Hope Christmas shoe box appeal
This year we are doing the Team Hope Christmas shoe box appeal again. Team Hope have been working for twelve years with people all over Ireland to send gift filled shoe boxes to more than two million needy children, all over Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Africa at Christmas time.
For many children this is the only gift they will receive this Christmas. At the moment we are working on our shoe boxes. We fill them with items for school such as pens, pencils and paper, hygiene items such as toothbrush and soap and treats such as small toys and sweets.
When we have filled our shoe boxes we then wrap them in brightly coloured Christmas paper. Our teacher brings them to the Team Hope representative and she takes them to the depot in Galway. We hope that all those who receive our Christmas boxes will enjoy them as much as we have enjoyed preparing them.